Impressively lively with good color still, although there is considerable browning on the edges. Soft iodine and granitic notes on the nose. Age is clear in the mouth - the wine is smooth and mellow with a dry haystack flavor on the finish. Good mouthf...

Herbaceous aromas with clay, red fruits, baking spices. Despite its age, the fruit is still quite lively, with flavors of cranberry and cherry, more fungal earthy notes with black olive and a mellow finish.

Black cherry notes. Deeper in flavor than some of the older vintages I tried this night. Cedar and sandalwood come through as well. Very rich and with good mouthfeel - this wine has a lot of power. Coffee, hazelnut flavors on the finish. Still shy, wit...

The 1970 has been fully mature for over a decade. Medium ruby/garnet with some browning, this wine has a cedary, sweet, tobacco-scented aroma, plump, ripe, round flavors that exhibit decent concentration, and soft tannins. The wine is medium bodied, ve...

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Château Cheval Blanc

BLM, what are you setting next to it as backup? ;-) A friend asked me to pick up some bottles for use this Thanksgiving. Had to go Tokyo bricks and mortar, and had little time today. Went on what I know he and the crowd likes and what I know of the menu (some shellfish and sashimi starters then straight into the big bird and heavy sides, with s...
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OT, how do you place Insignia or Dominus or Mayacamas or Heitz Martha's or others from Napa's storied past? I was a bit surprised to see Montelena in the list below. Do we want to track specific winemakers and consultants? So here're excerpts from the Wikipedia page on cult wines. Are these the definitions we want? Cult wines are those for whi...
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It's interesting that a few new topics have popped up recently (Experiencing Cabernet Franc for one) and that my wife Sandra just today handed me an article by Dave McIntyre she cut out of a Washington Post newspaper dated 25 March 2015. I'm starting this new topic based on this article "The wine cost four digits. And the taste?" regarding the...
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What was the vintage? It looks suspiciously like a 1991 but I can't be sure due to the angle of the bottle.After having a couple or three Bordeaux reds from that year back in the '90s I have studiously avoided paying for anything Bordeaux, from anybody, of that vintage, and even will avoid it when I'm not paying if there are better alternatives ...
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I was wondering what sort of new topic I could start that would pair nicely with my previous posting 'Weekday Wines'; well here it is - Weekend Wines. Sometimes I just have to stop and take a minute to pat myself on the back for my quick wit but alas, this isn't one of those times. Anyway, why not talk about wines we enjoy on weekends? These ...
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After a brief introduction to the the state of Washington this past Monday I reported on my visits to wineries in Walla Walla on Tuesday. Today I am reporting on visits both in Prosser, which lies roughly between Walla Walla and Seattle in the Yakima Valley as well as to wineries located basically within Seattle’s metropolitan footprint. As I’v...
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I am not super familiar with Paso Robles and was even a bit apprehensive to go thinking all their wines were the big, over-extracted high alcohol fruit bombs I have had at times before. A couple friends and I went for the weekend, staying in San Luis Obispo and want to Paso one day and Santa Maria/LosOlivos the second. On day one, we got there ...
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